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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, February 19, 1993                   TAG: 9302190394
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

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FOR DEPOSIT CONTAINERS, JUST ASK

ACCORDING to Daniel E. Flage's commentary Feb. 9 ("Virginia should have a bottle bill"), 80 percent of Virginians want a deposit system for their beverage containers. According to your editorials, 70 percent want a deposit system. If there is validity to your numbers, why do Virginians choose deposit containers for less than 3 percent of their beverage purchases?

Every major distributor of beer and soft drinks in this state offers deposit packages. If a consumer desired a deposit container, they need only ask at the store where they shop. If the store does not have deposit containers, they can easily obtain them from their next delivery. But more to the point, if 80 percent of Virginians truly wanted deposit-beverage containers, every retail outlet would stock a large variety of them.

It is obviously easier to answer a survey questionnaire, write an editorial or a letter to the editor than it is to actually put the thought into action. How many of the "easy-chair environmentalists" on the Roanoke Times & World-News editorial staff use deposit containers at home? Are you committed to recycling, or do you simply want the General Assembly to legislatively force your views from an easy chair on all Virginians? PHILLIP A. SHORT Vice President, General Manager Bova Distributing Co., Inc. HOLLINS

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